Kota Update:

Kota had surgery yesterday to remove a Mast Cell Tumor I discussed in a previous post.  I dropped her off at the vet yesterday morning and she definitely knew something was up.  She was shaking the whole time I was there.  It was so hard to leave her there, I heard her barking for me as they took her back.  She went into surgery at around 9:00am and by 11:30 was out of it and was waking up.  We couldn't pick her up until later that day.  Eric picked her up around 6:00pm.  She's doing fine.  She is clearly in some pain and is still on painkillers and Benadryl.  The Benadryl is due to the fact that this type of tumor is filled with histamines that can be released and/or disturbed during surgery.  She's been whining non-stop (like all night) and doesn't really want to lay down.  She just paces and stands there staring at me while she whines.

She did stop whining when I took the Elizabethan collar off so she could eat and go out, so I think she is more concerned about wearing her huge Elizabethan collar:

than she is about the eight inch long patch of skin that has been stapled together.

The tumor was sent to the pathologist.  We'll find out later this week if they got everything and if she'll need further treatment.

Garden Fresh

Eric and I spent a good part of Memorial Day weekend building a vegetable garden.  A few months ago it was what I "lovingly" referred to as a brier patch.  When I started actually pulling it up it turned out that it was a HUGE patch of overgrown wisteria that looked something like this with less of the pretty flowers:

I probably spent three hours a day for four or five days clearing out the area before I got to an area with thriving poison ivy (of which I only contracted one spot on each wrist in the exact same spot.  I attribute the fact that it was such a mild case to my daily dose of Rhus Tox) and a scary rotting stump.  Progress stopped for quite some time due to my fear of both poison ivy and the killer _______ I was sure was hiding in the rotten stump just waiting for its chance to jump out and kill me if I got too close.

After much stalling, we finally hired a tree service to grind down the stump.  This turned into a much larger job that included pruning 9 trees, clearing out the rest of the patch and some overgrown area behind the back yard as well.

We now had a blank slate.  We borrowed a tiller and Eric tilled garden to be while I went fence shopping.  We ended up with a fantastic semi-permanent fence that comes in 3 foot spans that you attach together with posts.  It looks much better than any other garden fence I've seen, is high and sturdy enough to keep deer, dogs and small children out and I'm hoping will be a deterrent to squirrels and rabbits as well.  It even has a gate!  Many trips to many stores later we had our fence set up and started to work on digging furrows for planting.  This was back breaking work, but I'm hoping it will result in some fantastic veggies.  So far we've got 9 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, a melon 3 types of squash, two peppers, an eggplant, radishes, green beans, 3 cucumbers, some strawberries and the root ball of some green onions I used the last of in my eggs yesterday.  I planted roses, herbs and marigolds around and in between the veggies in the hopes they will keep away bugs.  Now here's to hoping we get enough sun!

We found the rocks for the flower garden in the soil as we were tilling and clearing the area.

Fingers crossed that the sun is enough!

Late afternoon.

On a Serious Note

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we got Kota shaved earlier this week.  She is now a lot more comfortable (and funny looking) in this hot, humid weather.  Under all of that hair we found a relatively sizable lump.  I took her to the vet later that afternoon and we learned that she has a malignant tumor called a Mast Cell tumor.  She is having surgery to get it removed on Monday.  They'll then send the tumor to the pathologist who will be able to tell us how serious it is, if they got it all, and if there needs to be any follow up treatment.  The good news is that the tumor is in an area with a lot of skin so they will be able to cut around and get good margins since the skin can stretch.  It also is likely encapsulated in fat so isn't connected to tissue around it.  I'm feeling optimistic. 

Kota's Mat Cell Tumor

Please send good vibes our way!

Notice how big her collar is on her now that her mane has been shaved.

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, Memorial Day Weekend was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun and parts of it were exactly what a Memorial Day Weekend is supposed to be.  The work was all about creating a vegetable garden.

Saturday I skipped the gym!  We went to the farmers market, got a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, local, fresh, organic buffalo mozzarella and 4 organic, heirloom tomato plants.  I'm obsessed with Caprese salad this summer and I can't wait to make it with fresh, homegrown tomatoes.

After the farmers market we borrowed a tiller so Eric could spend the next few hours being thrown around the freshly cleared brier patch (that was covering a 5 foot in diameter scary rotted stump which was harboring a snakes nest - not kidding) digging and turning the soil.  Turns out we have some great soil.  It literally smells like poo and is chock-full of worms.  While Eric was doing the heavy lifting I went out to get a fence for our vegetable garden to be.  By the end of the day we had the fence mostly up and had started digging irrigation ditches in the garden.  And we were exhausted.  We just cooked at home and built a fire in our outdoor fireplace.

Sunday it was back to work on the garden for a few hours before we went to JT and Bryan's for a cookout (smokeout?).  JT and Eric adopted an electric smoker and this weekend was it's first outing.  We spent all day in the pool with the dogs, eating fantastic food with fantastic friends.

Kota voluntarily swimming.

Shaking out.

JT and I enjoying Bryan's summer specialty - strawberry mojitos - in the pool. 

Eric and I rocking out to whatever JT is playing.

Splashing some warm water.

Dex and I hanging out.

Monday was basically more of the same.  We FINALLY finished the garden and had a small impromptu barbecue in the backyard (More of that in a later post).  Cornhole, good food and good friends make for a perfect end to a perfect weekend.

Shannon and baby Sullivan.

Cornhole in progress.

Megs and I.

Dave's shot is a bit short.

The end of the evening feast.  Hamburgers on chiabatta, all natural hot dogs, avocado summer salad, grilled asparagus.

Don't Look, Mom!

We had our trees pruned last week.  I was very intrigued about how they got all the way up in the trees with what looks like minimal equipment.  It's the result of a pretty cool knot that you can slide up and down the rope, but it will hold you where it is.  I got to give it a try.

That's a Big Pile of Hair

Kota is a hairy dog.  She's got an undercoat that can make summer a miserable time for her.  Especially if I'm negligent with the brushing (which I tend to be).

Here is what happened when I brushed her after she (voluntarily) got in the pool the other day.  This is the result of about 5 minutes of brushing:

That's about the size of a Pomeranian.

Here is a much happier, sleeker dog:

Now we'll get her shaved and she'll be like a puppy again.

Make Your Own Sunjars!

Sunjars are great little solar powered jars of light.  They're great for spending long summer nights outside.  Unfortunately they also cost about $40 a pop.  Unless you make your own!

This is a project I've been meaning to do for a while.  I've had all the supplies necessary for months but just haven't found the time to make it happen, until last weekend.  Forgive the lack of pictures, I didn't think about blogging about it until about half way through.

Here's what you'll need

• Mason jars - ~$3 - $6 depending on the size.  We got ours at Ikea
• 1 can of Glass Frosting Spray - $8.  You can pick this up in the spray paint section of a home improvement store
• Solar Powered Path Lights - $5.  These can also be picked up from a big box home improvement store.
• Stick on Blind Spot Mirrors - $1.  OPTIONAL.  Can be purchased at an auto supply store.

Supplies can be picked up for around $10/light depending on the size of the jar

Wash and dry the mason jar so they are grease free and the spray paint will stick.  Follow the instructions on the can of spray paint to spray the body of the jar only.  Cover the top of the jar with newspaper or something to block the spray paint.  This needs to be clear so the sun can power the light.  Set them aside to dry for an hour or two.

Next you will need to disassemble the path light.  You'll probably need some tin snips and a screwdriver for this step.  Pop off the top of the lamp and throw this part away:

Here's where my lack of pictures hurt so I'll probably pilfer from some the interwebs.  Pop the solar panel out of the top of the housing.  It will probably be glued down somehow so take care not to crack the panel.

The solar assembly is attached to a battery pack inside the tin housing.  Cut through the tin housing taking care not to snip any of the wires or hurt the solar panel.  You should be left with this:

When you get to this point you'll probably want to start putting them in the sun to gather light so you can test them when you're done.

Glue the battery pack to the solar panel.  We started with hot glue, when that didn't hold we switched to gorilla glue.

Hopefully your mason jars are dry by now.  If you're using the mirrors to increase the light, now would be a good time to stick them to the bottom of the jars.

This next part took some trial and error on our part.  The solar panels were just the tiniest bit too big to fit in the very top of the mason jar.  They were however the perfect size to fit on the rim, this made it a little slippery when it came time to glue it in.  Our solution ended up being to run the tiniest bead of gorilla glue around the outer edge of the solar panel.  Gorilla glue expands when it dries so you really want to use it sparingly.  Place the solar panel in the top of the mason jar and use a hot glue gun to temporarily secure the solar panel into place while the gorilla glue dries.

After using the gorilla glue around the outer perimeter of the solar panel place the panel in the top of the mason jar so the panel is facing the top.

Part of our trial and error.  At this point you should already have gorilla glued it and be using a hot glue gun to secure it while the gorilla glue dries.

I used a rubber band around that as well for extra security.

Set them in the sun to catch some rays, and viola!!!  Your own sunjars for a fraction of the price.

Rumor has it you can use cellophane (like the wrapping on a Gatorade bottle) to color the lights in your sunjar.  Eric and I haven't found any that are a good color and will still let light through since Gatorade changed their packaging.  If you'd like to try this cut a one inch square section of the wrapper and tape it over the bulb.  Make sure to tape all the edges securely.